


Arrogance

by The_Lady_Meg



Category: Supernatural
Genre: End!verse, Gen, Minor Violence, in a slightly unusual way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 04:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2494892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lady_Meg/pseuds/The_Lady_Meg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arrogance always was the Devil's downfall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arrogance

**Author's Note:**

> Written pre 10.03 and has therefore just been jossed to all hell.

It’s not noticeable at first.

He’s a demon. Which is new, but hey, it doesn’t bother him that much, so why waste time moaning? He works his way through various bars and various women, Crowley playing the devil on his shoulder with alacrity, always trying to prod him towards being  _more_.

(He probably regretted that later on.)

Looking back, the first time it happened was with Anne-Marie. He was so caught up in beating the shit out of the moron who touched what was  _his_ , if only for this week, that he doesn’t stop to consider what his intervention might look like.

Then Cole. Poor stupid bastard Cole whose daddy died and now hates Dean, because of course he does. And why not, after all? The world needs balance, and he killed his Azazel, so he’s going to have to be someone else’s. It seems oddly fitting, and in any case it’s ironic enough to entertain him. He can’t be killed by anything soldier boy can throw at him, so why waste time on him.

It doesn’t occur to him to start looking for other parallels.

Crowley’s the first real red flag. He screws the King of Hell over without a second thought (and why wouldn’t he? He’s untouchable and unkillable, surely not even Crowley’s stupid enough to try to take him on?), but then there’s Sam and handcuffs and Crowley smirking at him through the windscreen of the Impala and  _goddammit he underestimated the little bottom-feeder._  Sam takes him back to the bunker, and there’s a word for what got him into this situation, but he ignores the voice whispering it to him.

Sam tries to cure him, and he deliberately slams on the buttons he knows will hurt his brother, because he’s better than this pathetic excuse for a human and Sam has no business to meddle.

He escapes and chases Sam round the bunker until they get to a room where Sam has left a few surprises, sigils painted on the walls and spells that Dean doesn’t know, and suddenly Dean’s in the middle of nowhere with a taste of sulphur in his mouth and the annoyance of having been deprived of hacking the little shit to pieces because he underestimated him  _again_.

That’s the second warning.

Several months and a few states later and he’s still wading through bars and killing the people who try to protect their girlfriends and sisters and wives from him. The first time someone says the word to him out loud he levels a small town (“ _leave me alone, you arrogant son of a bitch!”)_ and tells himself it was because she insulted his mother.

He burns a few more bars to the ground after he’s done with them, and acquires a small following of demons who call him King in a frightened tone, and the Mark  _sings_. This, this is what he needs. He needs to be looked up to again. He’s missed that, ever since Sam left.

Sam finds him in Las Vegas, Cole next to him and they try everything. Angel blades, Ruby’s knife, a small army of angels, a few rituals. Nothing works and at the end Dean is still alive and still a demon. There are angels littering the streets as he strides towards his brother, who even now doesn’t look scared of him.

Sam tries to get him to stop, tells him Dad wouldn’t have wanted this, and Dean laughs in his face.

“Dad’s dead and gone, Sammy. Now move. Inigo Montoya here needs another shot at the revenge he fucked up last time.”

Sam doesn’t move and Dean does, except suddenly neither Sam nor Cole are there any more, because  _of course_  they brought Dean’s pet angel along.

It ends with Dean and his horde of demons at Stull Cemetery, facing Sam, who is flanked by angels and hunters, clutching an angel blade in his hands and looking like he wants to be anywhere but here. The Mark on his arm recognises the blade instantly.

_Michael’s sword._

There are no vessels, no archangels, just two brothers with blades, on opposite sides of a battlefield.

And why not, after all? Arrogance was both the Devil’s downfall and Dean’s undoing, and the bloodline’s there, the archangels just got it the wrong way round. The righteous man fell and the boy king rose and it’s all so obvious in hindsight. He’d been told it would happen, but faith has never come easily to Dean. Lucifer probably understood that.

It’s 2014, and all the details have changed.

They still end up here.


End file.
